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Letter to Speaker Boehner: Restore Fiscal Conservatives to Their Committees

On behalf of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide, I strongly urge you to restore Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI), Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), and David Schweikert (R-AZ) to their respective committees. Many in the grassroots freedom movement are angered and disappointed by the news that the House Republican Steering Committee has purged three strong fiscal conservatives from their assignments on key committees. While no public explanation has been given for their removal, nor have they have been directly informed of it, there is strong evidence that they were removed solely because their votes were not in lockstep with leadership. It seems plain that the leadership hopes to enforce party discipline by punishing dissent. When did it become a crime to stand up for fiscal common sense and constitutionally limited government?

These legislators are popular with grassroots freedom activists because of their commitment to limited government principles. Rep. Amash, who has been removed from the Budget Committee, has a 100 percent FreedomWorks lifetime rating. Rep. Huelskamp, removed from the Budget Committee, has a 96 percent FreedomWorks lifetime rating. Rep. Schweikert, removed from the Financial Services Committee, has a 96 percent FreedomWorks lifetime rating. These principled legislators have stood with the Constitution even when it was unpopular to do so and have routinely voted against big spending bills. They should be praised, not punished.

If the Republican Party wants to become the majority governing party, it must stop alienating the millions of grassroots citizens upon whom it depends and whose principles it claims to share. House Republicans should not ostracize their own members for holding the Republican view that Washington should not spend money it does not have.

We applaud these three constitutional guardians for taking principled stands against bloated bills that would cripple our economy and add to our national debt. These men are voting the way that they promised their constituents they would—on principle. I strongly urge you to restore Congressmen Amash, Huelskamp, and Schweikert to their respective committees.

Sincerely,

Matt KibbePresident and CEOFreedomWorks[Click here for a PDF version of this letter.]

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It is time Boehner to go. He has been an ineffective, idea-less leader who is more interested in maintaining the status quo rather than actually fighting big government. He does not represent the tea party or the average American.

It really is sad to see Boehner take things in the direction that he is. Comedy can be found in many places, dirtmudd, and I must ask if you've looked at the White House recently? Last I recall that's always a good place to find some humor.

FreedomWorks has selected the Readable Legislation Act, H.R. 5759, as the bill of the month for December 2016. The bill was introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) in the House of Representatives on July 13. It has yet to come up for a vote for reasons that are unexplainable.

Few Members of Congress have been as consistent defenders of liberty as Justin Amash. Representing Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District since 2011, Amash is currently the only Representative serving more than one term with a lifetime score of 100 percent on FreedomWorks’ Congressional Scorecard.

Speaking to the liberal Republican Main Street Partnership last week, Speaker John Boehner’s chief of staff, Mike Sommers, named the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank as one of the main priorities for the House of Representatives in October. Sommers also praised the liberal GOP group, while making a subtle dig at principled conservatives who believe Republicans should govern by the limited government values on which they campaign.

Fiscal conservatives have been rightly celebrating the resignation of John Boehner as Speaker of the House, paving the way for new, more principled leadership. But there is a dark side to Boehner’s decision: along with his House seat, he’s also forfeited any accountability that might have reined him in for the remainder of his term. Even now, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Barack Obama are conspiring to craft a two-year budget deal that would combine a whole slew of big government priorities into one fiendish package.

House Speaker John Boehner has announced that he will resign from Congress at the end of October. You read that right, he’s not just stepping down as Speaker of the House, he’s leaving Congress altogether, creating a seismic shift in the congressional landscape.

We’re just days away from the expiration of funding for the federal government running dry, and that event that is spoken about only in hushed tones of dread by the Washington establishment: a government shutdown. For those who regard the federal government as the provider of all that is good and noble in the world, whose Life-of-Julia worldviews require state intervention in all activities great and small, this represents an unthinkable tragedy. The rest of us tend not to really notice, except when the Feds go out of their way to prevent World War II veterans from visiting their own, open air memorial.